The political thoughts and opinions of a pragmatic Canadian Libertarian Economist. Do not mistake me for a real journalist, this is just one man's opinion.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Proroguing Parliament Or Cancelling It Altogether?

I still remember the day when a few dozen people marched through the streets of downtown Vancouver to protest delaying the return of federal parliament for a few weeks until after we hosted the Winter Olympics. The allegation was that Stephen Harper was trying to subvert our democracy and silence the voices of the opposition. The whole Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (allegedly "grassroots") campaign proved to be over-estimated in their numbers and severely lacking endurance as the Tories won a comfortable majority a year later.

I'm curious, all these tens of dozens of British Columbians who were furious at Stephen Harper for delaying the legislature by a few weeks to host the Olympics, where were you today when Liberal Premier Christy Clark cancelled the entire fall session of our provincial legislature? Where is your outrage? When will we have the march through downtown? I could not even begin to imagine how much our national media would lose their shit if Harper cancelled the entire fall session. Yet Christy Clark cancels an entire session, and the backlash elicits barely a whimper.

It is a joke that our legislature in BC will only sit for 36 days this year. Come on people, stick to your principles! If proroguing Parliament for a few weeks is a vicious attack on our democracy, cancelling Parliament for the whole session has to be many times worse, right?